The Hardest Hits
by wynters
Summary: Melinda is teaching Jemma how to fight. It doesn't end well. Set after T.R.A.C.K.S.


"Never go straight for the lower half of the body first."

"Why is that?"

"It gives my opponent on opening to go around my back, to get me at the head, at the neck."

Melinda nods her head, urging Simmons to continue. The young woman takes a deep a breath. Her shoulders are tense, but that's how she puts herself into it; acclimating to the situation. Melinda silently swears anyone could see how hard she was thinking from a mile away.

It happened suddenly. Skye was in the hospital and they all had been waiting around with nothing to do. Simmons was feeling vulnerable and in desperate need of a distraction. Simmons corned Melinda alone and ask for help, a request to learn how to fight. Melinda was hesitant. There were at least a dozen reasons to say no, and now wasn't the time for that particular task, but would there be a better one on the horizon?

"Agent Simmons, your opponent, whoever it may be, is coming with at least a fifty percent chance or more of wanting to kill you. There is one hundred percent chance of them wanting to hurt you and they will. They're not going to wait around while you think."

Melinda takes an opportunity and delves forward, moving so swiftly she barely exerts herself until she is grabbing Simmons by the arm. With her left hand Melinda grips her to a point that she'll feel it, but won't cry out in pain. To her right she sits the edge of her hand against Simmons' side, right above the hip bone.

"Right there, Agent Simmons." Melinda pulls back, bringing more space between them than before. "Hit them-"

"Where they least expect it." Simmons frowned, feeling an irregularity in being unsure of herself. "But what if I can't surprise them at all?"

Melinda sighed. She couldn't blame Simmons for her curiosity, but it was where they had been conflicted over the past couple of hours. Melinda liked to go straight for the target, whereas Simmons liked to analyze every scenario and lay down the pros and cons; the more details the better.

"Chances are you won't ever get put in that situation."

"But I was. That man on the train..."

"An unexpected consequence." Melinda's nonchalance held tight, there was just no better way to put it.

"That's why I need to you to teach me, Agent May. I can't ever let that happen again." She begged. Simmons remembered when Coulson approached her and Fitz for the jobs on his team. He insisted combat training wasn't necessary. Fitz had suggested they take up some quick self-defense lessons just in case and she basically shot down the notion all together because she was excited with the prospects of taking their knowledge to new heights. The regret hit her hard and she shuddered.

"My point exactly. You're not a field agent. We should have never put you in that role in the first place. It can't happen again. It's not your job."

"I'll make it my job if it means helping." She stated.

"In between your science experiments and patching up bullet wounds?" Melinda challenged without missing a beat.

"Agent May, I... I..." Simmons started shifting on her feet. She was nervous now. This was the longest she had shared words - and time - with the woman she admired. This was the last way she expected it to go.

"You what? Stop thinking, Jemma! Just say it!" Melinda demanded.

"I can't stop thinking! I like to think. Thinking is conductive to how I work." She explained with the best of her intentions.

"Are you sure about that?" Melinda was losing patience. She moved back towards Simmons and threw a light punch in her direction. Simmons pulled herself backwards and moved to the side, just barely avoiding the hit. Melinda took that as an opening and squared her off.

"And yet you didn't think when you put yourself in front of that man on the train."

Simmons gasped. "Don't look so surprised. Fitz told us."

"You didn't think before letting yourself get shot. You probably didn't think much before taking a dive out of the plane. What makes this basic training any different? If you can't keep up, then the next time Agent Coulson suggests either you or Fitz for the field, I'll be sure to put in my personal assessment against it."

Simmons let out a screech she didn't know she had in her, and then she advanced on Melinda without tact, running straight into her. Simmons' body shook and she knocked Melinda's face in with her elbow. Fearing Melinda's reaction, Simmons immediately moved backward again. She had to resist running out of the room.

"Oh my god, Agent May! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

Melinda sharply turned her head back and smiled. "Yes you did. Now do it again."


End file.
